The Body Snatcher

by Patricia Melo

Meet Brazil's answer to Tom Ripley: unnamed narrator who is just as amoral as Highsmith's famous anti-hero but only has one tenth of Ripley's brains. He does, however, have charm, a girl friend who works in a morgue and the luck of the devil. So sit back and enjoy sex, drugs and cadaver kidnapping, whilst hating yourself for smiling.

Extract

What if Ramirez killed me? The hottest day of the year, the radio said. It said: sixteen trampled to death at religious event. It said: Taliban stronghold invaded. It said: Iran enriches uranium. So far, so good, I told myself. I'm not religious, I'm not an insurgent, and I don't live in Iran.